Tekton Double Impacts

Hi Kenny,
In terms of the tonality of musical instruments and human voice what differences (if any) are there between the 2A3 SET and your LTA ZOTL 40  amplifier?
Charles

Charles,

Even though the Zotl 40 is a very good amp,
The 2a3 is even more convincing with better natural tone and timbre of instruments and voices and has just a wonderful midrange that isn't too much of a good thing like my Yamamoto is.

I'm gonna save my Yamamoto for my smaller 2nd system and hunt for a speaker that is lean sounding in the mids and I think that will be a better match.

I know that my DI's measure pretty flat with just a small bump up around 500hz,possibly other 300b amps would match better with the DI's for people that need more pwr.

It's been a number of yrs since I owned a 2a3 amp and I guess I forgot how good they can be and with the DI's I do believe I've found a better match for at least 90% of the music I listen too excluding full orchestra.

It just proves to me once again how darn easy the Di speaker is to drive and also how good the little LTA MZ2S preamp is also.

I did change 300b tubes in my Yamamoto to the recommended Eml Xls and it does sound better overall than it ever has but it just has too much midrange bloom for my tastes.

All I can say is Teajay is correct when he has stated numerous times that the low pwr 2a3 amp can rattle his walls and also sounds very good with all kinds of music.

Kenny.

Hi Kenny,
Thank you for your listening impressions of these two very fine amplifiers. Teajay has very good ears and has heard many High quality components over the years. You’ve heard many good amplifiers over the years as well and have a sense of perspective. It’s not surprising that both of you hear virtually the same attributes with a good quality 2A3 SET. No doubt that the ZOTL M2Z is a definite asset to the overall sound.

Kenny I’ve been told that the Yamamoto 300b SET has a warmer character than the Coincident Frankenstein MK II (more neutral in relative terms). We’ll see what transpires at  Mac’s home later this week to hear his Double Impacts driven by the Frankensteins. .
Charles

Charles,

Thank You for your valued perspective and I will be looking forward to read about Mac's and your outcome with your Frank's driving mac's DI's and using the MZ2S line stage .Should be quite interesting.

I've read several different takes on the Yamamoto that I have and you are correct it's quite a warm amp even with the very quiet and neutral Siemens c3m driver tubes that the amp uses and without doing a complete circuit redesign I don't have any suitable substitute for that tube.Maybe a lively V-cap coupling cap might change it's character for the better.

After talking to you and also reading several reviews on the Frank's I have no doubt that they sound very good and might be a good choice for me but I can't get past the chrome and I much prefer good ole basic black.But never say never right.

There is a upincoming amp builder and his name is Aric Kimball and his website is Aric audio.com,I've been talking with him about building me a custom 2a3 amp that uses 6sn7 drivers and solid state rectification and also staying under 2k.

Kenny.

Thanks for the link to the tube amp site Kenny. Does he build point to point or with circuit boards? Like the amps and prices. Not a fan of circuit boards in tube amps and thus my question. His amps remind me of Dennis Had’s amps. Dennis builds his himself all point to point wired. Works of art!

Second, Hammond output tranny? I have used them and they are OK, but....
SS rectification is a great way to go with your speakers. Typically SS rectification yields better bass performance. Always exceptions, but in general I have found SS rectification best in tube amps.

Will your custom amp use different output trannys?